Fighting The Wind & Rain

When you look at the weather report and they are calling for 15-20 MPH north winds and a 100% chance of rain all day, it kind of puts you in a mood for the tournament day that is about to come. As gone as the sun was, so was the ability to see those pockets to pitch into where the largemouth lurk in the weeds at Black Lake. Usually get on a decent dock bite too when it's nice out on the lake. So what to do in these conditions. Well..grind it out. We launched at 6:30 am, we were boat #13. it was already raining hard. We buzzed to our first spot of weed and rock mixed together which was our plan to focus on for the day. Immediately I notice how high the water is from the recent rains. I was unaware of this since I had no time to prefish and prepare for this tournament and haven't been on Black Lake since June of last year. I wonder if the high water has pushed them tighter the shore? After a while I realize that it has not done that. Water temps are 72 degrees and weed growth is substantially down on the lake (maybe from the spraying they have been doing on the Lake). About 30 minutes in I hit a small pocket of weed/rock mix and grab two quick ones. Roughly the 5-6 ft range. One a little over 3 and the other a 2 1/2. Both caught on a senko. Two solid fish for Black Lake. Great start. I try to copy this range of depth and style around but the bite doesn't return. I move deeper. Nothing. I move shallow again..nothing. I realize that I am going to just have to stick to the plan and grind away in the same type of area and eventually I will get to my limit. I leave to the next area and this is something I wanted to share with people because I hear people say all the time " that boat just fished that". Implying that you probably won't catch anything since it was just fished. I can't stress it enough how many times I have catch fish right behind people. It's not because of some magical powers. It's because you can't cast to every singe spot. So you may make that cast to the one spot they missed or maybe the fish didn't want what they were throwing and they do want what you are. Always work an area you feel confident in even if someone else just hit it. So after arriving at the new place a boat has just worked the entire stretch and is above to take off. I pull up at the end and start to rework over it. A few seconds in I pitch a BleuGill color Bayou Bug Jig tipped with a rage menace trailer into some lily pads and boom. Just under 4 lbs. A really solid fish to help anchor us. The rest of the day was mirrored with 14 inch fish (there is a 15 inch minimal keeper size on Black Lake), the rain continued to fall periodically getting stronger and lighter throughout the day. By mid day we had our other two keepers. 15 inchers just around that 1 1/2 lb range. We searched as hard as we could for one more decent 3lber which we knew would put us up to the top few but it just didn't come. Overall we had a pretty decent day and finished with our limit, culling for a few ounces twice for a 5th place finish on a day where fishing wasn't simple due to the weather conditions. Until next time Black Lake...tight lines!